Why The BBC Doesn’t Blog
In his column in the BBC magazine section Pete Clifton, BBC News web site editor, says that while there have been several blog-like segments on the site, he won’t call them blogs because they lack the minimum elements that he considers necessary.
Clifton’s definition requires:
- Minimum duration, even for event-based blogs, of at least a week
- Commitment from the author to engage and respond to the audience
- Periodic short posts in reverse chronological order with permanent URLs
- Ability to take and display comments
- RSS feed so users can subscribe to them without coming to the site
He says there won’t be any blogs on the BBC site until they can get the software that supports these features.
His article shows one of the lacks, as you have to scroll down past a couple of things before you can find his comments on blogs.
I find it interesting that he feels that to be a true blog there has to be interaction with the readers. Apparently, coming from old media, he feels that the interactive component is a signature feature of the true blog.
I would note that the BBC World Service constantly solicits e-mail and text message comments on their stories and read them as they come in, unlike the NPR once a week letters segment and the general lack of any type of viewer commenting on television.
